The barcode produced by Word is POSTNET.
The USPS no longer accepts that format for bulk mail discounts -- see
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/897290. You might as well not use the
barcode feature at all.
However as the barcode is merely a field deriving bar code data from the zip
code data, there is no reason why you cannot build a field in your merge
document whatever your data source. We don't use barcodes where I live, but
something of the order of
{BARCODE { Mergefield Zip} \b}
is probably all that is required.
Merging from Outlook gives you access to all the fields in your data,
provides the filtering power of Outlook and any editing of the data should
be done through Outlook.
--
Graham Mayor - Word MVP
My web site
www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site
http://word.mvps.org
John Nasta wrote:
Thanks Graham,
The problem with initiating the merge from Outlook (the way I have
done it for years) is that it seems there is no way to add delivery
point barcoding when the merge is initiated from Outlook 2003. I used
to be able to do this from Outlook 2000, and it seems to be an
oversight in Outlook 2003.
If I initiate the merge from Word 2003, I can add the barcoding but I
haven't found a way to filter by info in the "Notes" field, which is
where I store info about which promotions to mail to which clients on
which dates. The "Notes" field does not appear in the "Edit
Recipients" dialog box in Word 2003.
I tried copying & pasting the barcode field from a Word-generated
merge document to one initiated from Outlook, and also tried making a
merge document in Word that has the barcode field, saving it, and
then choosing "existing document" when I start my merge from Outlook.
Both made the program hang. A box pops up saying that I have an
invalid field and whether I click Remove, OK, or Cancel, the box just
keeps popping up again and I have to kill the process in Task Manager.
Any ideas or info is appreciated. Of course the thing that bugs me
most is that I used to be able to do this with Outlook 2000 and it is
vital to how I market my business. If there is no fix I will just
have to give up using barcoding and hope that it doesn't have a
negative effect on getting my mailings out. Maybe somebody at
Microsoft can create a patch to fix this.
John Nasta
"Graham Mayor" wrote in message
...
The field is called Notes and is available if you merge from Outlook
http://www.gmayor.com/mailmerge_from_outlook.htm
--
Graham Mayor - Word MVP
My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org
John Nasta wrote:
Does anybody know how to filter data in the
comments/memo/whatever-it's-called field in Outlook contact data
during a mail merge (creating labels)? The problem I'm finding is
that this field doesn't seem to have a name. I'm talking about the
big "whiteboard" box that you can copy & paste all sorts of various
stuff into.
I can find records that contain certain data in that field by doing
a simple "Find" in Outlook but if I try to do a mail merge from
Word I don't seem to be able to filter by data in that field. I
don't see it in the list of fields and it doesn't appear to have a
name in the contact details screen.
What I like to do is put a simple code like 20070912-promo001 in
that field so that I A) have a way of creating a label to send a
certain promotion to that person on a certain date, and B) always
have a record in their contact data showing which promos I have
sent them and when. I am trying to see if there is a way to do this
from Word rather than initiating the merge from Outlook.
Thanks for any info,
John Nasta